Monday, September 1, 2014

North Texas law enforcement say they will be out on local lakes in big numbers over the Labor Day weekend to help keep people safe on the water.

Parents on Lewisville Lake say they're worried about the hidden dangers underwater, but one mother told Fox 4 she has a strategy.

"Anytime you're at the lake, it's so murky. You just don't know what will happen," Juanita Nunez said. "100 percent eye contact the whole time when you're out here, when your kids are in the water."

Nunez' six-year-old daughter Makayla knows how to swim and does not need a life jacket in shallow water, but it's the number of people on the water that had Nunez on high alert.

"What I get most concerned with are the jet skis that come in before the buoys," Nunez said. "Anytime I see that happen, I make sure I get her out of the water."

The high volume of swimmers and boaters are also a concern for law enforcement agencies who have launched the Labor Day "Safe Lake" program. Officers have eyes on the water and on land, looking for suspected drunk drivers.

Denton County Sheriff Will Travis said if boaters use a little precaution on board, it can save lives.

"When you get out here and get around this many people out here, it's a lot going on and a lot of people don't keep up with their friends," Travis said. "Even more than that, no one wears life vests and we've never pulled somebody from the water that's had a life vest on. We try to get out there and encourage boaters to wear the life vest."

Some boaters on the water were already taking the sheriff's advice.

"We are going to wear some life vests, make sure that everyone is behaving and not rolling around too much and watch out for other boats," boater Jim Large said.

Large said his family just wanted a smooth day on the water and to focus on why they were on the lake in the first place.

"It's a great chance for us to spend some time together out here in the sun and nice weather," Large said. "After that, it will be back to work."

Denton County Sheriff's deputies and Texas Parks & Wildlife game wardens will team up this weekend to watch those operating under the influence on boaters and jet skis.

A lawsuit in federal court today may temporarily stall the closure of most Louisiana abortion clinics.

Three Louisiana abortion clinics and two physicians are challenging a May law which would make it nearly impossible for abortion doctors to practice in clinics. The law, which goes into effect Monday, requires doctors to have the privileges to admit patients to a hospital within 30 miles.

That would end abortions in at least three of five Louisiana clinics. The doctor at Hope Medical Group for Women in Shreveport has such privileges.

But Kathaleen Pittman, administrator at Hope Medical, said her clinic risks losing that physician, who might quit even though he has admitting privileges.

"If he is the only doctor in the state left to perform procedures, that is a burden he is unwilling to shoulder given the harassment he has endured over the years," Pittman wrote in an email.

Hope Medical joins Bossier City Medical Suite and New Orleans area abortion provider Causeway Medical Clinic, along with two unnamed physicians known as John Doe 1, M.D., and John Doe 2, M.D., in the lawsuit.

Those clinics' representatives will ask Judge John deGravelles to freeze implementation of the law while Louisiana abortion doctors continue the lengthy process of applying for admitting privileges, according to Julie Rikelman, litigation director for the Center for Reproductive Rights.

If the judge rules the law should be implemented as written, Rikelman said abortion rights advocates must re-evaluate and reconsider their legal tactics. She said deGravelles indicated he will rule before Sept. 1, though that isn't guaranteed.

Louisiana abortion practices will remain unchanged if deGravelles blocks the law from taking effect, but the delay in its implementation is the first step of fighting to erase the law entirely, according to William Rittenberg of Rittenberg, Samuel and Phillips, also representing the clinics.

"The governor and Legislature pretend to pass laws because they care about the health of the mother, which is interesting because they also believe the mother is a murderer," Rittenberg said. "No question: this law is there to make it more difficult for women to get abortions."